SLOT INFORMATION

Software

Pragmatic Play

Type

Video Slots

Reels:

Paylines:

Ice hockey is one of the most popular sports across the globe, and Hockey League by Pragmatic Play attempts to capture all of the action and fun of this sport. they've done a good job of using a balanced selection of symbols with a strong bit of background noise that sounds like the crowd packed in around the ice to watch. This creates a different type of atmosphere than what most games give you, even games based on sports.

Even though the graphics aren't the best in the world, they're more than adequate for this game, and it's good to know that they were concerned more with strong gameplay than just giving players flash with no substance when they created this game.

Format and Layout

Anyone familiar with online slots will be able to tell you that the five-reel, three-row format of Hockey League is very normal, as is the fact that there are 20 paylines across the reels. This is a very strong foundation that this developer has used to build on for this game. Coins run from $0.01 to $0.50, and players can bet up to 10 coins on each of the 20 paylines. This puts the smallest bet size available at $0.20 per spin, and you can also wager as much as $100 per spin if your bankroll allows.

Wild Symbols

As we mentioned above, there are two wild symbols in this game. The first is the silver league cup symbol, and five of a kind will land you a 1,000x win with this symbol. Four earns 150x, and three gives you a 50x pay. The puck is the other wild symbol, but it also acts as a wild symbol too. Five of the puck pays you 200 times your total bet, which is like a 4,000x line bet, and that is the largest regular payout that you can find in Hockey League.

Three or more of the puck symbol triggers the bonus feature. This is called the Most Valuable Player round, and it's essentially a set of free spins. Before each spin, you'll get a randomly-chosen symbol from the hockey players, and that player becomes scattered for the next spin. This gives you better payouts, and because these are done with the top-paying symbols in the game, the extra wins you get from this are formidable in size. This is an atypical way of handling a free spins feature, and it shows that Pragmatic Play was looking to do something special.

Four Character Symbols

There are four symbols in this game that can be chosen during the MVP bonus round that are based on three players and a ref. The ref is the highest-paying of the four, and he gives you 500x with five of a kind. Five of the red hockey player will land you a 350x win, and five of the blue is worth a solid 250x. A 200x win is yours when you get five of a kind for the player in black, and that rounds out the top pays.

Low-End Wins

To balance out the bottom end of the pay table, you'll get 120x for five of a kind in the green A or black K symbol. The pink Q, orange J or purple 10 will all pay you 100x for five of a kind. These symbols are stylized like the symbols on hockey jerseys, which makes them fit in with the theme really well even though they stand out as being different from the wilds and the character symbols. This is how you make a game visually appealing without needing to resort to gaudy, over-produced, 3D graphics.

Our Thoughts

Hockey League is a game that looks a little dated at your first glance, but as soon as you start playing it, you realize that its gameplay is right up there with the best that the industry has to offer. Its atypical bonus feature and the way that every aspect of the game is pulled together to fit with the theme shows that a good amount of planning went into this game. Overall, it's a solid title that players will enjoy with a balanced volatility, even if you're not a fan of hockey. Many sports-based slots lack solid gameplay, but that's definitely not the case here, and fans of any type of video slot will find something that they enjoy about this particular title because of how well-balanced it is as a whole.